I'm now on the 'time to go Phil' bandwagon.....

Just wish he'd fall on his sword and quit but that ain't gonna happen...

chill the F#@K out cat15. we all feel the pain m8

I'm sorry CAMPBELL, but why chill out. Being so chilled in the whole teams BLOODY PROBLEM!
Just once I'd like to see them play like they are actually desperate to win. How about some blood and sweat on the floor. Is it too much to ask a team to give it all on the floor?
Chilling and letting it go has been what we have done for several seasons now. A change is needed and sooner rather than later.

Why should he chill out... I think he's hit the nail pretty much on the head.

Tonight was a debacle...... We lost the rebound count 38 to 54 including giving up 19 offensive rebounds and it's not like the Crocs have a rebounding ace up their sleeves (ever heard of boxing out????), we hit 15 of 27 free throws (55% pathetic), and we turned the ball over 16 times...

Facing it, we aren't a playoff team this season, and as EC said in another thread it's gonna be a long season.

'Long and boring'

I love basketball, so why the hell would i want to follow a team that puts in that sort of effort? Maher deserves so much more from this club.
Not sure of the logistics but can we cut our imports, and get ONE DECENT DEFENDER/REBOUNDER to intimidate inside? We got plenty of perimeter threats still, Motts and Coops are ok if in a rotation with a QUALITY import. Goodbye Dench, Chappell and Ballinger.
I just don't see any point in the rest of this season if changes aren't made.
We shot 30% to their 60% fcs!!!

Wouldn't it be at least refreshing if Phil actually came out and took some responsibility for the crap our team is serving up!

Nathan,
IMO Ballinger is a quality import and has been one player that has stood up and put up consistent numbers every night so far. Chappell can be a great player for our club. He showed this in the game against the Breakers. He just needs to get 100% fit and then work from there. I think his fitness is starting to come back and he can begin to fire like he has in previous seasons in the NBL.

As for Smyth I agree that he makes poor decisions in rotations. A great run by our team on the court always seems to lead to a substitution. Why? Does he feel like he has to rotate to feel he is doing is job?

A sacking at this point of the season will have benefits in so many ways.
At least we could still get behind a new cause and support the future, instead of being in the same position as we were last year and hoping it just gets better.
Lets face it, management promised us a new product and new future....all they have delived is some new colours, new players and same old performance.
Smyth has to go before this organisation can REALLY move forward again

I've said it once before, but I believe Hemmerling has great business and sporting acumen. He has proven himself and his worth in the past with the Adelaide Grand Prix and the 2000 Olympics. You would think these ventures were much bigger than owning and running the 36ers. What we are seeing right now seems like an incompetent coach is being tolerated, but I don't doubt for a moment that Hemmerling has got his finger on the pulse and putting strategies in place for the success of this club. Perhaps 2 seasons is still not enough in the grand scheme of things.

OK, so Mal gets rid of Smyth. Now what? Who would you get to replace him? (Chris is available!!!)

Hmmm, I m thinking the Chris Lucas sacking was awful, but me thinks Mal should cut Phill now.

I dont know why, but one feels so right and one feels so wrong!

pigs brought in rob beveridge and have had early success. there are options out there.

Ive heard Scott Ninnis is available....

To be honest, I'm pretty worried about this next Kings game!

I think Ninnis is the perfect replacement.... very timely too....

He deserves a chance so getting him in now would give him most of the season to show what he can do, then if he isnt right for it look else where at seasons end, but im pretty sure anyone different would make improvements, id bet my house on that!

GOING GOING G... The three dots represent how many more games of this shit we should put up with .

Lets look at this in true perspective .

Securing Newley was a good move for the future yet every other move we made was for the now which is both Contradictory and counterproductive .
The contingency plan was both too late and wrong .

Davidson , i like very much but he is here 3 years too late .

Ballinger is an excellent pickup but will be under utilised and needs an aggressive and athletic SF-PF to compliment his game with the hussle , rebounding and defensive intangibles that Chappell just does not have . Chappell is a smooth player that would compliment a team that has the aforementioned skillsets sewn up .

Cooper , Mottram and Dench are all decent plug in players but together in this system or lack of they are both uninspiring and somewhat flaccid .

Sutton is a decent round out PG .
Kersten is both more creative and more likely to develop further .
Shannon Seebohm is another name that the Sixers probably can't spell properly .

The one style fits all that has been around since day dot is in need junking and while i find the make up of this team somewhat boring , the strategy and utilisation of talent is flat out floored but hey we can discuss that in the next timeout.

The identification and recruitment of up and coming talent ? non existant .
The vision ? see end of last answer .
The answer ? obvious .

"flaccid" ...... LOL

:-)

The answer, that'd be Brad!

No brad is the awnsre

Oh and DICKO , i thought you would get a laugh from that one . ;)

Listen to the audio link on NBL.com of Smyth post game. Manages to use every excuse under the sun - and already putting forward excuses for the next game. He's shrugging it off : "they were on fire, we were getting hands up, they were just hitting everything", "they were getting to the boards", "we were tired (having problems with early flight, change of time zone".
Well .. every damn team has these problems - WHY is it an EXCUSE for us ?!
I'm sick of hearing shitty excuses for shitty performances. It's up to the coach to get the most out of the players - if they are down, you need to pick them up, if things aren't working - you make a change. He just doesn't seem interested in putting in the effort anymore - and didnt seem that interested in the last few seasons.
The players we have deserve a more inspirational and more influential coach.

Andy Simons would be a pretty good option. Played at NBL level, and about 10 years in the SEABL.

Obviously shown that he can coach. Great mix of fun and hard work. Think he would be a great fit for the sixers...... any team really!

Also has connections in the basketball world which is huge.

Ninnis could be his assisstant. Pretty good line up I think.

And yet despite all yoru complaining hes still picked the #1 coach players want to play for.

I think a failure at this level goes beyond the Coach. These players dont respect the club they are playing for, every loss they should have to stand a smack in the face from Mark Davis...stop them from loosing Im sure.


Geelong supporters were calling for Mark Thompsons head last year, this year they blitz every team and well, we know how much fun it was to see port demolished.
This year He is the Coach of the year, when asked what he did differently he replied, nothing...He said the players stood up this year, he simply did the same things he did last year.


Perhaps all the supporters blaming the coaches puts it into the players mindsets they cant win.

Doesn't recruit

Lost 5 adelaide born players who are future Boomers

Doesnt develop players that are here

Trainings are simply jungle ball

The Buck never stops with Phil

Doesn't scout opposition

Has a 'mime' as an assistant

etc etc etc


* would love to hear Boti's take on the season thus far. However he is still top and tailing Phil.

The problem is they are being paid regardless of performance. Can you imagine the difference if they were paid on a game by game basis and the level of pay they got for each performance was based on how well they performed. There is more excitement in winning a championship at ABL level because money is no object.

how the worm has turned - the other day mr marino sacks lucas and it oh dear this cant happen and now that we had touch of success - good on you girls we want the same - team spirit got the girls up lets support the sixers team spitir is all thats needed
get behind them

Do not compare Lucas and Smyth they are totally different situations. the reality is Smyth has got to pick the players that he has wanted over the last 3 years, and the only consistency about the team is lack of commitment. I hope Mal sits Phil down and sets him some goals and if he can't get the boys to reach them, well it's time to go.

Thought they would've done that after last season?

No, in the offseason, Phil wasnt available as he was overseas "recapturing his enthusiasm for the game" .. thought at the time it sounded lame, and that he should have stepped down last season if he no longer had the enthusiasm.

"INSANITY is doing the SAME thing over, and over and over and over again and still getting the SAME result."

Umm, haven't you described "sanity"? Check the quote, its "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."

Personally, if I'm dialling the same phone number over and over again, I'd expect the same group of people to answer, and not say Phil Smyth telling me that its not his fault his players, who get paid significant amounts of money, can't hit more than 55% of their foul shots...

Everyone - stop looking for a scapegoat! The players are the ones playing, they're the ones out on the floor, they're the ones not doing what's needed to win. The buck stops with them.

"Everyone - stop looking for a scapegoat!"

Yes.....That's Phil's job.

Roseboy - how can blame Ballinger for putting up high quality numbers, only to get dragged. Phil's decision, not his.

Or Cooper getting more minutes than Mottram?

Or Ng bringing the ball up ever?

Smyth: "The reality is for us coming back from (11th) last season, it takes time."

Players and coaches are individuals but to have your coach picked as the one most players want to play for sounds like warning bells to me. You need a coach that is going to be tough when needed and i think players play as hard as they are pushed. Do players want to play for him because when they play Adelaide they dont have to work hard?

I have always as a supporter appreciated Smyth's relaxed style. When he has the right group of players that thrive in his 'system' it makes for inspiring basketball. I don't think I would appreciate a Joyce or Goorj as coach.

So, I have usually been in the pro-Smyth camp, although I must say last year really shook my confidence in him.

I am not yet in the calling-for-Smyth's-head camp, I wouldn't argue too long or with too much passion if Mal did make any precipitous moves.

Biggest problem with the Sixers has been the total lack of balance in the team for some years. We have not tried to recruit those players with the defensive fundamentals that were instilled in those players of the '98/'99 era. Mark Davis, a man who knew how to box out and get on the boards. Sapper, who never stopped trying and was an injection of pure intensity. Ninnis' quick hands. Mee, defensive player of the year. Rees, who was nothing if not intimidating in the paint. Then add to that younger more intense Maher's and Wheeler's.

In the early days of Smyth's reign, the Sixers were known to create their offence from inspirational and hard-nosed defence. Over the years, Smyth has either:

1. dropped the ball when it came to finding those defensively sound players; and/or

2. the types of defensive structures he has put in place have become outdated and easily countered.

Not everything that a player is can be seen from their stats sheet. Look at Horvath for a good example of that, a 20/10 player who can not mix it up properly at this level.

Squid, you are very right. Until Phil in his own mind accepts responsibility for the results, nothing will change. The fact is Phil's coaching credentials are very limited. Give him an u/16 boys team to develop and he wouldn't know where to start. There are junior Sturt coaches who have more of an idea about structuring a training session than Phil. So why has Phil won championships I hear you say? Because when it was acceptable to rort the salary cap and buy great talent, the coaching had already been done, already put into these players. When you have far superior talent it goes a long way to getting a 'W'. Over the last few years the talent hasn't been there so now coaching comes into it more than ever. Really good coaching CAN make up for talent disparity. No better example than what Beveridge is doing with the pigs. Coaching ability will always be laid bare sooner or later. Phil's cracks are opening up big time and he doesn't know how to plaster over them at the moment so resorts to more of the same. More of the same excuses rather than saying the buck stops with me. The amount of money he has mined out of the Sixers is staggering for what he offers, but I guess it is amazing what good PR does. Mal, deep down you know the answer and it is a tough decision but the only decision that will free this club and get it back on track.

IZZY has got it spot on.

So he reviewed the tape 3 times (or so he says).
Question 1: Were any of the players included in the review? Did they watch the tape?
Question 2: Has he watched any tapes of our next opponents??

I can see that I'm not alone in wondering what our full time coach is doing.

Go back to my comment re: Darren Ng. A few years ago he was rated as one of the top 3 Ballers in the country for his age group. Now?? Has he improved at all? Perhaps Smyth has gotten Darren and his brother Marcus confused. That would explain why he keeps playing Darren as a PG.

There are so many problems with the coaching at the moment that it is not going to be fixed this season if Smyth stays.

I see that the Breakers were able to cope with the road trip they had to Singapore!
Boti's article this morning was about as limp as I have ever read.

If this continues to go south, it would be a bad move not to make the change. Yes, pay out Smyth and do the dough to run off into the sunset bleating, but not doing it runs the risk of losing season ticket holders at seasons end. Bring in a fresh coach (Stacker) get a few wins on board, a promise to rebuild and give the season ticket holders a glimpse of the future this season for next. A sort of 'try before you buy' scenario. Don't make the change and the ticket holders will make up their mind at seasons end and say that's it.

Well I purchased Gold tickets for the first time this year and most definitely I will be giving very serious consideration to renewal next year if this sort of performance continues for much longer.
The last few years have been so disappointing, even though rosters have changed, but when one thinks about it, there is one common denominator, and you know who that is!
The game against the Tigers was really embarrassing in that I have never seen a side toy with us at home the way the Tigers did that night.

"I've watched the (game) tape three times now," Sixers coach Phil Smyth said. "You watch it to see if you were boned, then to watch your offence, then to watch your defence.

Yeah, that's right watch a tape to see if there is an excuse first up. F*ck me.

Boti's article today was one of his most toothless ever, with all that "glass half full" crap. The glass might be half full, but that doesn't mean that what is in it tastes any good.

Boti's wider coverage of the NBL is and always has been fantastic. But I really do wish he would pretend just once in a while, that Smyth was ANY OTHER coach in the league, and as such would then be subject to a much more frank and brutal assessment of his performance.

Sack Phil now, bring in someone to really put a rocket up some of these guys. You can't honestly tell me that this year's roster is not a MASSIVE improvement on last season. Personally, I think this is a better roster than the 2002 Championship team.

Yet, here we are at 2-4. Someone better call Benson and Stabler to the SEC, because Sydney is going to enforce a brutal violation on us on Wednesday.

izzy you should be thankful that defence even made it to third priority after the refs and offense

Taxi for Smyth!!